NEW DELHI, Feb 9: The 500-odd pages of secret Swiss bank documents relating to the Bofors pay-offs case were not actually brought to India by then CBI director Joginder Singh. The much-awaited box which he brought home from Berne in January last year did not contain the Bofors documents for security reasons, Singh writes in his 325-page autobiography titled Without Fear Or Favour. The papers were carried by one of the three members constituting the CBI team.The book - likely to be released by CBI chief D R Karthikeyan later this week - contains interesting tidbits about Singh's life including his wedding - which he nearly missed - his first encounter with a telephone and differences of opinion with former Punjab police chief K P S Gill on the tackling of terrorism in the state.Asked to comment on the book, Singh said, ``It is my autobiography. It is equally interesting.''Singh has deliberately avoided delving into details of sensitive cases being handled by the CBI for fear of being dragged tocourt, but has referred to interesting incidents in connection with the probe.On the delicate task of bringing the Bofors papers to India, he says a three-member team had gone separately to Berne, Switzerland, taking different routes. While Singh, who knew he would be the focus of media attention as soon as he landed in India, only carried a ``dummy box'', another officer carried the Swiss bank papers. This was part of a security drill devised by him.In the book, carrying a foreword by Rajeev Sharma, special correspondent of Newstime, Singh also talks about his being abruptly shunted out from the CBI and being made an officer on special duty in the Union Home Ministry.Of the 17 CBI directors, he was perhaps the only one to be shifted within 11 months in office, Singh says while maintaining that transfers were the prerogative of the government.On Punjab, Singh, who worked as inspector-general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Chandigarh when Gill was Punjab police chief in the late1980s, refers to his difference of opinion with Gill's ``bullet-for-bullet'' policy. However, he concedes that his assessment could have been wrong.The book, which contains a description of some comic situations in his life, also tells the story of how he almost missed his own wedding ceremony. He was left behind when the entourage stopped on the way from his village in Jalalabad to Chandigarh and no one noticed his absence. The bride's father, he says, mistook his absence for a ploy aimed at extracting dowry!
